Situationen i Ukraina just nu, del 3

"Until this day, we have not been operating near Mariupol. We are saving our energy. But now, after Kiev decided to place the blame for its accidental Grad missile attack <…> on the residential area [of Mariupol] on us, I gave an order to suppress Ukrainian troops' positions located to the east of Mariupol," Zakharchenko said, adding that no one was planning to storm the city.

According to the DPR leader, Kiev has gathered its forces near Mariupol over the past few days, with militia's positions being constantly attacked with Grad missiles and artillery.

"Today there also emerged armored vehicles of the 28th Ukrainian brigade. This has been done to make us bring our forces to Mariupol that are currently defending the Donetsk airport in order to weaken us and drive out of there," Zakharchenko said.

He noted that the citizens of Mariupol had nothing to fear, as the Donetsk militia were there.

Idag startade vi offensiven på Mariupol

The SMM conducted a crater analysis and its initial assessment showed that the impacts were caused by Grad and Uragan rockets. According to the impact analysis, the Grad rockets originated from a north-easterly direction, in the area of Oktyabr (19 km north-east of Olimpiiska Street), and the Uragan rockets from an easterly direction, in the area of Zaichenko (15 km east of Olimpiiska Street), both controlled by the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”).

At 13:02hrs and 13:21hrs the SMM heard again incoming MLRS salvos lasting for eight seconds, from an easterly direction. At a distance of 300 metres the SMM saw smoke above the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ checkpoint number 14 (8.9 km north-east of Mariupol city centre), just several hundred metres away from where the shelling had hit in Olimpiiska Street.

By now most of you would have heard about the artillery strike on the civilian outskirts of Mariupol. The Nazis blamed the Novorussians, who denied it. Turns out the locals saw it all and even filmed it. Bottom line is this: this appears to be an "honest" mistakes, meaning that the Ukrainians were probably trying to hit the advancing Novorussians but that their salvo came in short (Ukie artillerists do not exactly have a reputation of being snipers...).